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Abstract

Aims: Firstly, to investigate the association between depression, anxiety and urinary incontinence (UI) in a 10-year longitudinal study of women. Secondly, to investigate the association between possible differences in the stress- and urgency components of UI and different severities of depression and anxiety by age groups.

Methods: In a longitudinal, population-based survey study, the EPINCONT part of the HUNT study in Norway, we analyzed questionnaire data on UI, depression and anxiety from 16,263 women from 20 years of age. A multivariate logistic regression model was used to predict the odds of developing anxiety and depression among the women with and without UI at baseline and the odds of developing UI among the women with and without anxiety or depression at baseline.

Results: For women with any UI at baseline we found an association with the incidence of depression and anxiety symptoms, OR 1.45 (1.23–1.72) and 1.26 (1.8–1.47) for mild depression and anxiety respectively. For women with depression or anxiety symptoms at baseline we found an association with the incidence of any UI with OR 2.09 (1.55–2.83) and 1.65 (1.34–2.03) for moderate/severe symptom-score for depression and anxiety, respectively, for the whole sample.

Conclusions: In this study, both depression and anxiety are shown to be risk factors for developing UI with a dose-dependent trend. UI is associated with increased incidence of depression and anxiety